Are we Trek yet?
This guide is intended to be a comprehensive look at the tech that Star Trek suggested to drive humanity forward ad astra per aspera. The emphasis is on...
What .NET 10 garbage collection changes really mean for developers
“For decades, garbage collection in .NET was a background concern. It was mostly invisible to the everyday developer and was regarded as ‘automatic’ unless...
The Marmarole Mountains: a three-day solo hike in the Dolomites
The Marmarole mountain group is an island of quiet, where, especially at the end of the season, it’s easy not to meet anyone for entire days. Nature is harsh...
Ur-Fascism
Prompted by an old post by Bob Schwartz (2017), I revisited and reread Ur-Fascism, the essay Umberto Eco wrote in 1995 for the New York Review of Books. What...
The Monte Mauro loop
On Sunday afternoon, I suddenly decided to take my motorcycle, ride to the foothills, leave the bike there, and hike the Monte Mauro loop, including the...
Age and cognitive ability
Finally some good news for us old farts! Cognitive ability (probably) peaks between 50 and 60. The post Age and cognitive ability appeared first on...
Why exercise is a miracle drug
Last year, Ashley and a large team of scientists conducted an elaborate experiment on the effects of exercise on the mammalian body. In one test, Ashley put...
Empty nest
A few weeks ago, we accompanied Anna to Amsterdam, where she will study at the University. She is our youngest daughter. Marco left home years ago to study...
Cognitive load is what matters
Sometimes we feel confusion going through the code. Confusion costs time and money. Confusion is caused by high cognitive load. It’s not some fancy abstract...
Why arent people going to conferences anymore?
Brent Ozar’s article below resonates with my post-COVID experience as a conference speaker. From big national and international conferences to local meetups...
Python: The Documentary
This is the story of the world’s most beloved programming language: Python. What began as a side project in Amsterdam during the 1990s became the software...
The first-line treatment for ADHD
The first-line treatment for ADHD is stimulants. Everything else in this post works best as a complement to, rather than as an alternative to, stimulant...
Invoicetronic, or what I've been working on recently
The most recent project I worked on is Invoicetronic, a modern API for complete management of the electronic invoicing cycle in Italy (FatturaPA/SDI). We had...
A zoomable, searchable archive of BYTE Magazine
From roughly the late 80s until the mid-90s, every month I would visit the newsstand at my city’s train station, hoping to snag the single copy of BYTE...
The ROI of exercise
Like Herman below, I exercise daily. A one-hour brisk walk in the early morning on weekdays before sitting at the desk, and four weekly sessions of...
Repair, the skill nobody talks about
Let me tell you something that will happen after you become a manager: you’re going to mess up. A lot. You’ll give feedback that lands wrong and crushes...
Old timers who built the early web are coding with AI like it's 1995
The old timers who built the early web are coding with AI like it’s 1995. Think about it: They gave blockchain the sniff test and walked away. Ignored crypto...
Oops he slipped
I was hiking the Narrows trail along the Rockcastle river in Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest, slipped off the edge of the trail and broke me ankle....
The lies we tell ourselves
The lies we tell others are for survival. But the lies we tell ourselves… those can kill us! A quote from Ragazzo by Zuzu, which I read recently. The post...
Professional decline begins sooner than expected
Luci Gutiérrez, from the linked article. Arthur C. Brooks, in his July 2019 Atlantic article Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You...